 I love how music and art not only shape culture but also reflect it. You want a sign that that dollar is indeed weakening, check out the new Jay-Z and Pharrell video, "Blue Magic." Instead of flashing "Benajamins," they're rolling in Euros. I think that's the funniest thing but the statement it makes is pretty strong.
The thing I hate about it is that the ones who are getting hammered by the exchange rates are the missionaries over in Europe and elsewhere. They are losing money left and right and are having to work twice as hard at raising funds. And to be honest, a lot of them aren't very good fundraisers. That's not their calling or gifting, yet they are forced to do what they must. That's a whole other post about what's broken in that system so I won't go there here. But, if a missionary comes to your mind, pray for them and also consider what you might be able to do to ease the pressure from the weak dollar. |
 Check out the keynote presentation of Josh Spear last week at the Internet Advertising Bureau's Engage conference last week in London.
His talk, "Born Digital - they're not listening" gives us a pretty good feel for where things are and where they are headed as it relates to this new digital world we live in.
Hit the jump here to watch the video. After you're redirected, you'll have to click the link... it's the second one down on the page.
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Reblogged from PSFK and Likemind, but I think it's a great question for the church to be asking. If you had to rebuild your city from scratch...
How Would You Rebuild Your City? Likemind’s Top 8 Ideas So we have a decent draft of the results presentation over here on Likemind - but for those of you who like lists, here are the top things Likeminders would do if they would rebuild their city: - Create The Right Mix To Create The Right Neighborhoods - Create neighborhoods with a communal feel by deterring the development of specific use zones and encourage the mixed use with offices, residential, social and education
- Waterways as Transport Alternatives - Use the waterways better to provide transport alternatives (and even provide energy)
- Bury The Car - Hide parking lots and highways underground
- Green Space, More Urban Farms - Increase vegetation on buildings
- Slow Down, Ride A Bike, Take A Walk - A greater introduction of bicycles, better cycle lanes and pedestrian zones.
- Speed up Transport System improvements - It’s taking too long everywhere
- Keep the identity and atmosphere
- Avoid planning - evolve not rebuild
Answers came in from Likeminders in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Austin, Bristol, Brooklyn, Copenhagen, Dallas, Jacksonville, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, St Louis and Toronto. I'd love to hear your thoughts and answers to this question... |
 It's interesting to see how marketing has changed over the years. Because of the Internet, companies are spending more time and more dollars creating community and giving customers their own voice than they used to. A perfect example is PumaTalk. This online community is a place for people to talk about the latest in Puma gear as well as a Puma Photoblog with all kinds of shots from all around the world.
I've been talking with some friends lately about this trend and how people want to be part of a community of others with the same values even if they don't always agree. To start a dialog without pretense and just see what happens. Is it possible to connect with someone about shoes and then as that relationship develops, other bigger or dare I say higher issues come about that actually have purpose.
The world is looking for places to connect. I'd encourage you to engage people. Find out what they are about... what they have to give... find a common place and start there. You never know what could come from it... even if it starts with just shoes. Cool shoes... but just shoes.
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I know this is a couple years old but I had the opportunity to meet these guys at the SoCal Youth Convention last year. If you haven't seen Invisible Children please watch it today. The trailer is below and you can watch Invisible Children in it's entirety at www.freedocumentaries.org. Great site with a lot of online docs.
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 If you're not familiar with TED... you should get familiar with TED. Not the airline or the billionaire news magnate... What's TED you ask? From the site...
"TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader." The best part of the website are the videos. There's a myriad of topics and speakers. You won't agree with a lot of it, but at least you'll know what's out there and where things are headed. There's a lot of great stuff on there as well that'll inform you and cause you to think differently about the world. |
 Ok... so I got the request a couple of months ago from Eric Hunsberger to join Facebook so I can be a part of the MCIN Facebook group. At first, I thought, "Here we go... another social networking site... bla bla bla... Web 2.0... bla bla bla." So, I signed up. I just started really messing with it a couple of days ago and can I say... it is so much better than MySpace. I'll still do the MySpace thing and add friends and all but Facebook is where it's at. No wonder Yahoo offered $900 Million to the founder. The 23-Year Old Goon turned them down but I guess he's not such a goon now since it's valued at around $1.5 Billion.
So now I have... Blogger... Xanga... MySpace... Flickr... Facebook. Oh... and I also Digg. I guess I should get a real life. Oh that's right, I already have one and it's awesome.
The only thing I don't get and maybe someone out there can help me. Is there a URL for my Facebook profile or do you just find people by signing up and searching? Like my MySpace and Flickr have an actual address I can give people and it takes them straight to my own page. I can't seem to find where to select a URL where people can go directly to my profile.
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